Berkshire Hathaway Inc

Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the holding company controlled by billionaire Warren Buffett, agreed to buy Clayton Homes Inc., which makes manufactured homes, for about $1.7 billion. Berkshire Hathaway will pay $12.50 for each share of Clayton, 12% more than Clayton's closing price of $11.13 on the NYSE. Knoxville, Tenn.-based Clayton will become a unit of Berkshire Hathaway, with its management remaining in place.

The Oracle of Omaha has taken to Twitter. The notoriously tech-shy billionaire launched his @WarrenBuffett handle Thursday, where he quickly garnered more than 180,000 followers. He is the second-richest person with a verified Twitter account, after tech mogul Bill Gates (@BillGates.) His first tweet: "Warren is in the house. " Twitter might be a perfect medium for Warren Buffett, who has built a reputation for a folksy approach to investing. But it's also a surprising move given that he's not exactly the most tech-savvy person on the planet.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the company run by billionaire Warren Buffett, said quarterly profit rose 13% as a decline in insurance losses helped offset a $619-million loss from betting that the U.S. dollar would fall. Second-quarter net income for the Omaha-based company rose to $1.45 billion, or $941 per Class A share, from $1.28 billion, or $834, a year earlier. Revenue rose 1% to $18.13 billion.

Fast food giant Burger King Worldwide Inc. said it will lose its chief executive Bernardo Hees to H.J. Heinz Co. once billionaire financier Warren Buffett wraps up his acquisition of the ketchup company with 3G Capital. Corporate poaching this probably isn't. Nor is it likely a J.C. Penney-style flameout a la Ron Johnson. The deal appears to be all in the family -- private equity firm 3G Capital is also Burger King's majority shareholder, having taken the quick-service chain private in 2010 before relaunching on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2012.

With no major catastrophes in this year's third quarter, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reported net income that was nearly five times as high as last year's third quarter when hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma struck. The Omaha-based company said it earned $2.8 billion, or $1,797 a share, for the quarter that ended Sept. 30, compared with $586 million, or $381, a year earlier.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said it isn't considering investing in telephone companies to be sold in July in the breakup of Telebras, contrary to statements by a Brazilian money manager. Opportunity Capital, one of Brazil's biggest money managers, said last week it has approached Warren Buffett, Berkshire's chairman, about a joint bid. "This is absolutely false," said Marc Hamburg, Berkshire's treasurer. "He's never met or spoken with anybody."

Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the conglomerate run by billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett, posted a 37% drop in profit as its insurance operations paid out large claims from the hurricanes that hit Florida. Despite the losses, Buffett said that Berkshire's insurance operations, which include car insurer Geico and the No. 1 U.S. reinsurer General Re, were performing well and that the company had $38 billion in cash and equivalents on hand. Berkshire reported third-quarter profit of $1.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the company controlled by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, said second-quarter profit rose 44% to $353 million, or $231 a share, buoyed by gains from non-insurance operations such as Benjamin Moore Paints and its Geico Corp. car insurance unit. The results were below an analyst's estimate of $290 a share, according to Thomson Financial/ First Call.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said Wednesday that a shareholder vote on proposals to clarify the voting and economic rights of holders of Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares in the event of a merger is a "tidying up" and does not presage any major moves by the company. "The company's not going to be sold, but who knows what happens 100 years from now," said Buffett, 74. "But it's not going to be sold, there's absolutely no chance of that, while I'm alive."

Berkshire Hathaway More Than Doubles Stock Sale: The Omaha-based holding company plans to sell 250,000 shares, up from an initial projection of 100,000, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The increase suggests strong demand for the opportunity to invest alongside billionaire Warren Buffett. Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s chairman, has warned he wouldn't advise family or friends to buy Berkshire common stock at its current price of $33,200 a share.

A unit of billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. acquired a block of the U.S. life reinsurance business of Swiss Reinsurance Co. for nearly $1.3 billion, freeing up the Zurich, Switzerland, company's capital for more profitable investments. The deal with Berkshire Hathaway Life Insurance Inc., announced Monday, was retroactive to Oct. 1. It will release 300 million Swiss francs (about $292 million) in capital reserves for Swiss Reinsurance. Under terms of the deal, called a retrocession, Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway will be able to pocket premiums but also will be on the line for as much as $1.5 billion in potential losses.

Kraft Foods' bid to buy chocolate maker Cadbury hit a roadblock Tuesday after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway voted against a proposal to fund the deal by issuing millions of new shares. Berkshire Hathaway, which is Kraft's biggest shareholder, said the plan to issue up to 370 million new shares would "give Kraft a blank check," allowing it to change the offer for the British chocolate maker in any way it wishes. The statement came after Kraft said it will sell its North American pizza business to Switzerland's Nestle for $3.7 billion and use the proceeds to improve the terms of its bid for Cadbury.

Billionaire Warren Buffett's company reported a $1.5-billion first-quarter loss as it wrote down its ConocoPhillips investment and mostly unrealized derivative losses helped drag Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s results below last year's earnings of roughly $900 million. Berkshire Hathaway said Friday that it recorded a loss of $990 a share in this year's first quarter, down from profit of $607 per Class A share in the same period a year earlier.

Warren Buffett remains optimistic about the prospects for his company and the nation even though Berkshire Hathaway Inc. turned in its worst performance in 2008 and the widely followed investor says the economy will probably remain a mess beyond this year. Buffett used his annual letter to reassure shareholders that the Omaha-based insurance and investment company has the financial strength needed to withstand the current turmoil. Buffett wrote he's certain "the economy will be in shambles throughout 2009 -- and, for that matter, probably well beyond."

Swiss Reinsurance Co. said Thursday it would get a capital injection of $2.6 billion from U.S. investor Warren Buffett's company after warning investors it expected to lose $869 million for the full year. Swiss Re, which based its expected net loss on preliminary figures, said it would seek more funds from the capital markets. Write-downs of about $5.2 billion for the full year offset strong underwriting performance, Swiss Re said.

Billionaire Warren E. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. posted a fourth straight profit drop, the longest streak of quarterly declines in at least 13 years, on falling returns at insurance businesses and investment losses. Third-quarter net income decreased 77% to $1.06 billion, or $682 a share, from $4.55 billion, or $2,942, a year earlier, the Omaha-based company said Friday. Berkshire, which owns National Indemnity Co., General Re Corp. and Geico Corp., said profit from underwriting insurance policies fell 83% to $81 million.

Even General Electric Co., one of the world's largest and most respected companies, needs a helping hand during a financial crisis. The industrial giant got it Wednesday from investor extraordinaire Warren E. Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway Inc., the holding company run by the billionaire, agreed to buy $3 billion in preferred stock as part of a plan by GE to raise $15 billion.

Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc. got a much-needed seal of approval Tuesday from billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. agreed to invest $5 billion in the investment bank via a purchase of preferred stock, Goldman announced after the stock market closed. Berkshire also will get warrants to buy about 10% of Goldman's common stock at a discount price of $5 billion. Goldman said it also would raise $2.5 billion in a public offering of common shares.